Leave Mubarak!

Undoubtedly you have, in some form or another, witnessed the chaos that is happening in Cairo. Revolution. Revolt. Violence. I have been watching it with a slightly different lens...the background.  While the graphic images of bloodied protesters blazoned the screens today in the latest clashes between pro and anti-Mubarak, I have been spying the backgrounds of all these shots in efforts to recognize the familiar blocks of my old home.  Ironically enough, Midan Tahrir, where a bulk of the protests have been happening, is where I used to go to university.  The Hardees, the tourist agency, the old building where I went looking for an Egyptian flag...they are all there like silent witnesses.  Midan Tahrir has often been called the fulcrum of Cairo - surrounded by the former grounds of the American University in Cairo, the Mogamma (aka the government building of labyrinthine bureaucracy), the National Democratic Party building, the Nile Hilton and the Egyptian Museum.

It is incredibly heartbreaking to see these majestic buildings in the midst of such violent conflict and revolt.  I'm saddened that when people watch these images on TV, this is all they will ever know of Cairo.  Camels and horses have appeared on TV.  The protests in Giza have also shown the pyramids.  In a mystical city about which the world already has such ill misconceptions, images of tear gas, military trucks and Molotov cocktails have now been seared into a backdrop of a backwards city.

But the city is not backwards.  The protests in Cairo are about the disenfranchised jumping on a bandwagon to gain a voice.  Oftentimes, I viewed Egypt as a place of complacency, stagnation and lack of change - where doctors must live on a salary of 100LE ($50) a month.  The police officers who stood guard were mere skinny Egyptian boys with malfunctioning guns who received little more than tuppence pay.  Mubarak has created a regime of complete complacency and absolute allegiance.  Being an educator, I liken this to the tenured teacher who is sitting around waiting for his pension to kick in.  Status quo prevails.  And now a fight has broken out in the back of the classroom, but it's safer to sit at your desk and let the children duke it out.

Egypt needs a compassionate leader, and these protests are incredibly heartbreaking because such a leader is not emerging.  Though citizens are sure in their upheaval of Mubarak, there are also a good number who have become numb to the status quo, and the country has become divided into the old guard and the new.  Granted, in any culture, the youth want action and change, but it is incredibly frustrating to view a country where people are equally fighting to maintain gross inequalities and continued suppression.

This video was especially sad.  It is the Kasr el Nile Bridge which connects the island of Zamalek (where I used to live) to Midan Tahrir, the scene of all the major protests.  The protesters are trying to get to Tahrir Square and are being pushed back by the military.  It's especially riveting to watch the water cannons spray a row of men who have lined up to pray.  Egyptians are dramatic by nature, but this is beyond drama.

My hope is that Mubarak will have compassion on his people and step down.  My hope is that the people will not suffer.  My hope is that justice will prevail, but I do believe that we must appeal to a higher authority in the end.  God have mercy on Cairo.

Incidentally, this is the same bridge where I had quite an experience in Cairo when I lived there: Parallel Lives